RTP games
Request
How many people have taken their own lives after playing these RTP games? The percentage of people winning when playing these games as opposed to the people who lose ?
Response
Thank you for your request which has been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
In your email you have requested information relating to how many people have taken their own lives after playing RTP games.
Further to this, you have requested the percentage of people winning when playing these games as opposed to the people who lose.
Based on the wider narrative of your correspondence with the Gambling Commission, RTP games have been understood to be referencing remote gambling services such as RNG-derived games.
The Gambling Commission is not empowered to investigate suicides to determine whether they are connected to gambling; it is for coroners to decide a cause of someone's death. However, where the Commission becomes aware of a death that could be connected to gambling it will consider whether that information identified potential regulatory issues. More information about our compliance and enforcement approach can be found on our website.
The Gambling Commission can therefore confirm that we do not hold information on the number of confirmed deaths where gambling of any sort was identified as a cause.
As of 01/04/2024 a change in the LCCP came into effect that means operators are now required to inform us when they become aware of customer deaths if there is evidence of a link to suicide, such as contact from the customer warning that they may take their life. Where we identify that a suicide might have links to gambling, we will fully investigate the actions of the operator the person was gambling with.
The purpose of collecting information from gambling businesses is for regulatory purposes, in two key areas:
- To inform our compliance and enforcement work.
- To inform policy development (for example, on licensee interaction with their customers, customer use of gambling management tools and our knowledge of gambling across multiple gambling businesses).
It is not the purpose of the provision to create a comprehensive or robust data set to establish the number of deaths by suicide.
We do not and cannot use the information provided by gambling businesses to measure deaths by suicide associated with gambling or act as a proxy for such figures. This is because gambling businesses will not always be aware when a person who has gambled with them has died by suicide and so the reported figures may not be complete, and also because the figures will not be able to tell us which deaths by suicide were associated with the customer's gambling, which is a highly complex assessment beyond the remit of gambling businesses and the Commission.
Further to this, I can confirm the Gambling Commission does not hold information on the percentage of people winning when playing these games as opposed to the people who lose.
As you may be aware, all RNG-derived games will have a designed outcome. This is known as the Return to Player percentage (RTP). Once a game has gone live, gambling businesses must have processes in place to measure its ongoing performance. The aim is to ensure that the game continues to be fair and is achieving the designed RTP.
RTP is an average achieved over a significant number of game plays. It cannot be measured on one person’s game play alone. This means that someone could play for 50 spins and not win anything, yet another person could play 5 spins and win every time. You can read more about live RTP performance monitoring on our website.
Gambling businesses must complete an annual games testing audit. This can only be done by an independent approved test house. You can read more about the procedure for testing in our testing strategy.
Review of the decision
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your Freedom of Information request you are entitled to an internal review of our decision. You should write to FOI Team, Gambling Commission, 4th floor, Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B2 4BP or by reply to this email.
Please note, internal review requests should be made within 40 working days of the initial response. Requests made outside this timeframe will not be processed.
If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have already exhausted the review procedure provided by the Gambling Commission.
It should be noted that if you wish to raise a complaint with the ICO about the Commission’s handling of your request for information, then you are required to do so within six weeks of receiving your final response or last substantive contact with us.
The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (opens in a new tab), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Information Management Team
Gambling Commission